Well, I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans. Romans, where it's good to be back in this book. And our next text is Romans 9, verses 4 to 8. And so, today, we are going to be talking about Israel. And Israel has been a hot topic ever since October 7, it's been in the headlines. There's a horrible war going on there. If you've been keeping up with the news, you know that right now there's a ceasefire, where they're exchanging hostages and releasing prisoners. And so, a lot of people have been saying a lot of things about Israel. And as we open up to the book of Romans 9:4-8, we're going to get to hear what God has to say, through Paul, to the church in Rome, about his people, his nation of Israel. And so, in God's timing, he's got us studying this passage. Wow. It's a hot topic right now, what's going on over there. And at our church, we just believe that if we preach through books of the Bible, if we read through the Bible together, that God's word is sufficient to cover everything for our lives. Can I get an amen from anybody on that?
And so, today, God's got us studying something that is very current. And we need to hear what God has to say. Maybe you've heard what the news have to say, or you heard somebody else's opinion about it. Let's get it from God's Word. And so out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I'm going to ask you to give your full and undivided attention to Romans 9:4-8, because this is the Word of God, please follow along, as I read starting in verse 4.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. And so, Paul is going to say something here, when he says, not all Israel is Israel. I mean, he's going to say something that's very challenging to the Jewish people. But before he says that challenging thing, Paul has a very high regard. Let's just remember who Paul is. Paul was a Pharisee. He was a Jew out of the Jews, right. And then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And then he became the apostle to the Gentiles, going and taking the good news to other nations, besides Israel. And the Jews, they were jealous of this, they hated this. And there were Jews that followed Paul around, they persecuted him, they left him for dead, they had him thrown in prison, he had to appeal to Caesar and go to Rome because the Jews were after him. So, he's had a rough time with his own people, the Jews, and yet you see nothing but compassion for them in Paul's heart. Let's go back here in Romans 9. And just remember, it's been a few weeks since we've been here in romans, just remember, look at verse 2. Remember what Paul already said about his fellow Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh, “that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” So even though he had been saved from kind of being all about being a Jew, and even though the Jews were so against him, he still cared for these people, they were his people. And here in verses 4 and 5, you can see that he has a very many things of high regard to say about the Israelites. So, I want to go through the list of things that Paul says here. And I invite you to pull the handout out of your bulletin and take some notes and go through these things you can follow along here, because these are the things that come to Paul's mind when he thinks about Israel. And I wonder if these are the kinds of things that come to your mind. I want to wonder if you're just thinking politically with all that's going on today, or whether you're thinking biblically. And Paul, he's going to give us a whole list here of things that are true about the Israelites. Let's go through them together. Starting in verse 4. The first thing he says is “to them belong the adoption.” Okay, they have been adopted to be the children of God. And if you read through Exodus, which is all about God, bringing Israelites out of Egypt to the mountain where he's going to speak to them. Well, we saw in Exodus… we'll throw it up here on the screen. In Exodus 4:22, God referred to Israel as his “firstborn son.” And God even told Moses to tell Pharaoh, you let my firstborn son go and worship me or your firstborn son will die, which is what ends up happening through the plagues of Egypt. So, here's God's saying that the Israelites are like, they've been set in the place of his son. Now the Greek word here, we'll throw it up here on the screen. Here's the Greek word for adoption, you can see it's a compound word, it's the word for son and then it's this verb tithemi, which means to set or to place. So, to place you as a son, to them belong the adoption, they've been placed as sons and daughters of the Most High. So, Israel has been adopted to be God's people. And so, even though he's going to say something challenging to his fellow Jews, even though he's talking about how lost his fellow Jews are, because they don't believe in the Messiah, he still wants to acknowledge that Israel is God's chosen adopted people.
Now, I want to take you to some passages that I think are really important for you to know about Israel. The first one is in Deuteronomy 7, if you'll grab your Bible and turn with me to Deuteronomy, chapter 7. And the Deuteronomy is the second telling of the law. So, we've just gone through the 10 commandments for a second time, Moses is speaking to the generation that's about to go into the Promised Land. And then this passage, I think, Deuteronomy 7:6 and in the following verses is a great summary statement of God's relationship with Israel. And it says here in Deuteronomy 7:6, “for you are a people holy to the Lord, or to YHWH, your God. “YHWH, your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Now it was not because you were more in number than any other people that YHWH sent his love on you and chose you, for you are the fewest of all peoples, but it is because YHWH loves you. And he's keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that YHWH has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that YHWH your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. So here he's talking about God choosing to set his love on Israel. And the analogy of this kind of election, or this kind of choosing us throughout Scripture is this adoption. And so, you can even it will throw that word back up here on the screen, the Greek word for adoption. And you can see this was already used in Romans 8, chapter 15. It's used in Ephesians 1:5. Like, throughout Scripture, when we talk about God choosing people, we use this idea of adoption. And that's a picture maybe you can relate to; maybe you've known someone who's adopted a child, and they've set their love on that child, they brought that child into, not because of anything necessarily about the child, but just because they wanted to set their love on that child, and to place that child to be their son or daughter, and to love them in that way. That's what it's saying God did with Israel, not because of anything about Israel, not because they were so numerous people. No, no, no, it's just because that's what God chose to do, to set his love on them for adoption. So, if you know about Romans 9, you know that Romans 9 is going to get into this whole idea of God choosing and God electing, and a lot of people talk about it in a very controversial kind of way.
Well, we just got to see the context here is that God decided to set his love on Israel, and adopt them to be his people. Now, after the adoption, it says, the glory. And if you did read Exodus with us, and you just finished Exodus this last week, you saw that glory in Exodus 40:34, after they got the instructions of the tabernacle, and they completed the construction of the tabernacle, then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses wasn't even able to go into it. Nobody could even enter the tabernacle because it was full of the glory of the Lord. One other group of people has been able to see the physical manifestation of the glory of the Lord, and see they can't even go into the tabernacle. That's why the whole book of Leviticus exists to explain how God's going to dwell among them, and how they're going to come and worship and serve him, and the sacrifices of the priests, and what makes them clean or unclean. It's all so they can have a relationship with God who is showing his glory there among them as a pillar of cloud by day, as a pillar of fire by night. God, in his glory, is leading the people of Israel, the things that Israel got to see, wow.
Paul is highlighting the fact that God has revealed his glory to them. Then it says, the covenants, and notice it doesn't say the covenant. It's not just like God had one covenant with his people. There were multiple covenants that God had, let me take you to a couple of them. Go to Genesis 17 and let's look at what is known as the Abrahamic covenant. Here in Genesis, chapter 17, we'll look at verses 7 and 8. And maybe you know that God made a covenant. And a covenant, it's like a contract. It's like a legal binding agreement. And God made a covenant with Father Abraham. You know this is a big deal that he said, Abraham, you're my man, I'm going to give you a clan, and I'm going to give you a land, right? And that was the promise that he made. And when they made this covenant, and there were these animals, and they walked between the, the body of the animals there, well, it just God walked through this was just a unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham. Let's pay attention to what God agreed to with Abraham here in Genesis 17:7, “and I will establish my covenant between me and you.” And it's not just between God and Abraham, it says, “between me and you and your offspring, after you throughout their generations.” And for how long does it say this covenant exists, everybody? An everlasting covenant. Maybe you thought it was a big deal if you signed a 30-year mortgage, right? Maybe you've signed a two-year lease and thought this might be too much. Maybe? Maybe you signed a loan for a car payment, you thought, Wow, that's a long commitment. How about an everlasting contract that God is making not just to Abraham, but to his offspring, to his seed, to his descendants. Look at Genesis 17:8, “and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for a possession. How long does it say they have that for their possession, everybody? Everlasting possession, “and I will be their God.”
So, God has made a covenant with Abraham that he will give to his offspring a land and they will have that land for an everlasting possession. So, that's one of the governances that is still there. I mean, everlasting that goes for ever. And that's one of the things that God has between him and his people of Israel. Go over to 2 Samuel chapter 7. Let me show you another covenant here known as the Davidic Covenant. In 2 Samuel 7, God makes an agreement with King David. And so, if you can turn to 2 Samuel 7, this is definitely a chapter you want to refer to when you're thinking about Israel. So, there were many covenants, not just the old covenant. And if you know me, if you're one of my family members, one of my friends, if you've been going to this church for a while, you know, you don't want to get me started on the Old Covenant, right? This idea of the Old Testament and how that is just so bothersome to me. How I love to go on a rant about why are we calling something old? We can't even call one another old without that being taken as rude. Why are we referring to God's Word as old when it's way beyond old, it is everlasting, it is eternal. If God has said it, you cannot bind it into space and time. What God has said is going to happen. And so, if God has said something to Israel, I don't care how long ago it was, I don't care if it was in ancient times, if God has said, Is there a time limit on it? Is there a date of expiration on it? No, I mean, the Bible is very clear that you and I were going to fade away like the grass of the field, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And so maybe some of us have thought that these things were said in old times, and they're not still relevant today. Well, look what God actually said to King David here when he made a covenant with him. Just jump straight to the end of what God says. Look at 2 Samuel 7:16. And God's telling David, that your son Solomon, he's going to build the temple, and he's saying all these things, and then he says this, “and your house, and your kingdom shall be made sure.” And then what does God say everybody? “Forever before me.” You write this down if you're taking notes, underline this. If you do that in your Bible. “Your throne shall be established.” How long does he say there, everybody? “Forever”. So, this is not like some old promise that God made. This is an eternal promise that God has made. David, you're my guy, you're the king and your line, your throne will be established, someone in your line is going to reign on your throne forever. That is a covenant that God made with King David.
So, while he's thinking about the Israelites, God had made them his people, God showed them his glory. God made covenants with them, covenants, legal agreements with them that are still on the board forever. And then after that, those covenants, he says, the giving of the Law, these people experienced the giving of the Law. And we'll throw the Greek word up here for the giving of the law. You'll notice it's very similar to what we saw earlier for adoption. It's a compound word with that verb tifani, to place, to set. But this time, it's nomos. So, God set the lot of them he placed the law upon… Maybe you read Exodus 19, where there's thunder and lightning all around the mountain and smoke coming from the mountain. And the voice of God actually speaks to the people of Israel and tells them who he is, and the 10 commandments, and how he wants them to be as his people. And maybe you remember, the people were so terrified at hearing the voice of God that they couldn't handle the truth coming from God's mouth. And they said, Moses, you speak on behalf of God, because we can't handle hearing it from him. Because God gave them the law and the law of Moses, that we have for us. I mean, that's God, he gave that to Israel. He also says that the worship, he gave them the worship, or you could translate that the service. That's really what the Book of Leviticus is that we're about to read. It's the instructions on how to worship him, on how you can have atonement for your sin and be clean, and only before a god. How you can be holy as he is holy. And so, you can come into his presence and worship and serve him. He gave them those instructions. And then it says, and the promises so he's going through this list of things that God gave to the Israelites and the last one is the promises.
Go to Luke chapter 1 with me and let me show you how these promises were given to Mary. As we consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, as we begin to look towards the celebration of Christmas. I don't know what kind of celebrator of Christmas you are. Some of you have already been celebrating Christmas for weeks, you know who you are. Many of you are unashamed of your game, that's fine. You want to celebrate Jesus, I'm all for it. Some of us, we prefer to wait to celebrate Christmas till after Thanksgiving. Some conservatives here among us might even be like, I'm not celebrating till December 1, the first day of Advent. I don't know where you are on your Christmas convictions, but I know it's coming up for all of us. And I want you to see what the angel says to Mary here in Luke 1:32-33. Because the angel who comes from heaven, to give this young lady that is now famous to all of us, because she's married, the mother of Jesus, hey, even though you're a virgin, you're going to have a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. And then look, this is Luke 1:32-33. Look what this angel says, “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him,” here's some of the promises. “The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father,” who everybody? David. Now, isn't that interesting? That even the angel saying Jesus is Son of the Most High, son of our Father in heaven. But he also says that he's the son of David. I mean, look at that promise there, he will be on the throne of David. And then it goes on to say in verse 33, “and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” And Jacob is also known as what everybody? Israel. We just learned that a few weeks ago that Jacob went to his family, and he said, “Put away the household gods, wash your hands,” get clean, get right, because we're going to go worship God together as a family, so put away all of your idols. And when Jacob led his family like that, God said, I'm going to call you Israel. And that's where the whole nation, the whole name Israel comes from is from Jacob.
And so, look at the angel promising Mary, that her son Jesus is going to be what? On the throne of David and reigning over the house of Israel. For how long does he say he's going to reign over the house of Israel? Forever. So, see Paul, when he talks about Israel, he has value for the Israelites. He holds them in high regard. Go back to Romans chapter 9. He's bringing up all these things that we just kind of went through, very quickly, the adoption, the covenants, the promises, things that not only took place in the past, but things that are promised for the future, things that will be established and an everlasting possession of the land or a throne, that will be forever. And so, he's bringing up all of these things. He's making sure that even though he's going to say a real challenging thing to the Jewish people, he wants to make sure that we value the nation of Israel, that we value the Jews. And so even in verse 5, he continues with the climax, yes, to them belong the patriarchs, and from the Jews from their race according to the flesh, guess who came out of Israel? The Christ. And remember, Christ is not the last name of Jesus. Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word, Messiah. This is who they were really looking to, the Anointed One, the chosen one, the one that God promised would come, the one who came to fulfill all the prophecies. Yes, the Messiah, he comes from Israel.
And So, point number one, let's get it down like this: You want to “value Israel as God's promised people.” Value Israel as God's promised people. As we go through Romans 9:4-5 in our text, there are so many good things that Paul has to say about the Israelites, because of how God has adopted them, made covenants with them, made promises to them, shown his glory to them, spoken his Word to them. No matter what we're going to say in the next few verses, to the Jews, he wants to make sure that he speaks about them in a complimentary way of high regard. And so, I want to ask you, do you value Israel? Do you value all that comes to us through God choosing the Jews to be his people, and that ultimately, there's a Savior, and anyone can believe in the Savior, but he is a Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the one who comes in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one who comes to reign on the throne of David. We should have value for where Jesus comes from. I really think that when some Christians today get to heaven, they're going to be so confused, because there people are going to be like, look, there's the lion of the tribe of Judah. Look, there's the Lamb who was slain, but there's the stump of Jesse over there. And Christians today would be like the stump of what, who, who are we talking about? And these are all names for Jesus that are used in heaven. So, you make sure that you haven't disassociated Jesus from his roots. Let's stay true to the roots of where Jesus came from. And Jesus, he came from the line of King David, Jesus came from the line of Abraham, Jesus is the Passover lamb. Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, of Israel. If you want to really get to know the Messiah, you’ve got to get to know him as a Jew, because that's how he came to us. And so, I'm asking you, do you have a value for Israel? A value that goes beyond the current event politics, but a value that would say, well, those are God's adopted people, God chose the Jews and God made covenants and promises to them, things that are forever, things that are everlasting. Do you have that thought in your head now?
I can tell from being at church and I've been at church my whole life, I've been working full-time at church since I graduated college. All I've ever done is work at a church as my career. And so, I've been hanging out with church people a lot. And I have seen a lot of Christians today in America, who think like the Israelites, they're kind of somebody else from some other place, and some other time, and they don't really value Israel, they don't really think, oh, what did God do with the Israelites? I want to learn about that. I want to know that and because they don't think that it actually causes some real problems in their own Christian walk. And so, you may not think this is a big deal. I'm trying to tell you today that I think it's a big deal. And I've seen that the negative consequences when people don't have a high regard for Israel as God's chosen people. There are some effects that I see in their walk. And let me go through these things with you. If you don't value Israel, that you may see some of these things in your life. It may limit your scope of understanding scripture. Your Bible might be a lot smaller than it actually is. Because some of the books of the Bible you won't care about because they're about Israel. They're not really about me. And so, I find that a lot of Christian people if I were to bring up prophets, hey, do you know about Nahum, do you know about Micah? Do you know what God was revealing to his face? People, through these prophets, a lot of people, it's normal for people at church these days to have no idea about a lot of the Jewish prophets, because they are prophets to Israel. Why do I need to read them and study them, that means there's whole books of the Bible. You realize that the majority of the Bible was written in Hebrew? It was given to the Jewish people. And so, there's going to be large portions of Scripture, that you're not going to know what's going on, because you think it's to Israel, and it has nothing to do with you. And so, is your Bible smaller than the actual Bible really is? That could be because you think it's about Israel, and therefore, you haven't decided it's worthy of your attention. And if you don't pay attention to all the books of the Bible, what that could do. Number two is it could skew your view on who YHWH really is. So, you end up what is happening in all these books to Israel is God is showing them his glory, God is revealing himself. These are God's people, and he wants to have a relationship with them. He wants to be their God, and them to be his people. And so, God is putting himself on display, God is revealing himself. And if you don't really get into these books, you don't really see the full character of God.
Have you ever met somebody who really thinks Jesus is cool, but they don't really like God because he's harsh and intense? Have you ever had that conversation before? Have you ever felt that way yourself? I've talked to people at this church, and they're hip with Jesus, they like Jesus, Jesus has compassion. Jesus seems to care. But don't talk to me about that God of the Old Testament, the one who's got all this fire on the mountain, the one who's saying these intense things. And they start to think that there's some kind of difference between Jesus the Son, and God, the Father, when really all Jesus did was reveal to us who the father really is. And see, when you get into the history of God's relationship with Israel, how many times did Israel cheat on God and commit idolatry, and God in his steadfast love forgave his people and continued to be with them? How many times when Israel was faithless to God did God prove himself faithful to his people? No, you will see a God who is slow to anger, gracious, merciful, patient, that's what you'll see. If you really get into it. You'll see God's attributes on display, and you will be in awe of the glory of God, if you really see how he related to his people in Israel. But if you don't look at that, you might end up having a wrong impression of God, as many people have. I've met some people before that I thought were on fire at church, and they were going for it. They wanted to do the work of the ministry. They were very excited, but they had no Israel in their thought about life. And let's just go to this third one here. If you don't value Israel, it may leave out an essential ingredient of eschatology. If we're going to talk about the future, if we're going to talk about the last things, the end times, you need to make sure that whenever you're thinking about the future, as you're trying to figure out how Jesus is going to come back, and how's the millennium going to work, and all of these things that the Bible says are yet to come, I just want to ask you, does your future have an everlasting possession of land for the people of Israel? And does it have a throne of David where someone is reigning forever, because those are covenants that God has made, not just things of the past, but things that are yet to come? If there's no Israel in your future, you need to rethink that. You maybe don't value Israel as you should, because Israel is in the book of Revelation. Is Israel in how you see the future. So, there's ways that if you don't think rightly about God, choosing the people of Israel as his treasured possession, if you don't put a value on that, it can have a lot of negative effects on the way that you approach to scripture, on the way that you think about God, on how you view the future. I think this is a really important thing for our church to consider. And I can't think of a better time to consider it than right now. What do you think about Israel? And really, what's important about that is are your thoughts about Israel, in line with what God reveals here in Romans 9? Like, do you have this value of the covenants and the promises and the adoption that God had? And especially the big fact that we need to see coming out of Israel that unfortunately, a lot of the Jewish people didn't see is from Israel comes the Messiah, comes our Savior. Without the unique things that God promised and did with his people. That's how God revealed but chosen and anointed one to all people. And so that's what he gets to hear in verse 5. And look back at Romans 9:5 with me, and you can see he meant when he mentions the Christ and when you read Christ, you should think Messiah, that's what Christ really means. And a messiah means the anointed one, the one that God promised, the one that God sent. And notice, as soon as he says Christ here, he says, Christ “whose god overall blessed forever, amen.” It's like he just brings up the Messiah coming out of Israel. And there's like a moment of worship here from Paul, as he thinks about the Messiah. He's just like, yes, the one who's over all of us, the one who's blessed forever, yes, let's worship the Messiah who came from Israel. And then he has now this intense statement here in verse 6. And he says, but it is not as though the word of God has failed. Now, what's happening here in Romans 9, just to put it into context, right? We had this statement that for God's people, everything works together for what everybody? if you love God, if you're called according to his purpose, everything works together for good. In fact, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. But then now we have to look at the Jewish people. That's where we're going in Romans 9. And the people rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the people are going to be judged by the Romans in 70 AD, as Paul's sharing with you his broken heart for his fellow Jews, many of the Jews have not put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. And so, now he's addressing, hey, I've made these bold statements, these awesome promises, that if you're one of God's people, it's all going to be for good. Nothing can separate you from God. But then as we look at the reality of what's happening with the Jewish people, that doesn't seem to be the case. And so that's what we're starting to explain here in Romans 9. How is the righteousness of God revealed specifically through the Jews to the Gentiles.
And so, he wants to make it very clear here in Romans 9:6. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. Hey, let me tell you all those covenants, all those promises, they're not the problem. No, let me tell you what the real problem is, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. Not all Israel is Israel, just because you're a Jew, doesn't mean you're actually one of God's children. That's kind of the big thing that he's saying here. Because there was this idea among the Jews, that because I'm a Jew, I'm born in the line of Abraham, because I'm a Jew, therefore, I want a God's chosen ones. I'm one of God's elect. I'm one of God's people, just because of my line of birth, just because of the tradition I was raised up into, the family I grew up into, therefore, I'm one of God's people. And what he's clarifying here is, that's not how this works. Not all who are descended from Israel, are really Israel. And then he's going to go and clarify in Romans 9:7, you're not all children of Abraham, because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh, who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. So, the question here is, who's the real offspring of Abraham, he uses the word offspring three times there in Romans 9:7-8. It's the Greek word sperma, which gives you an idea of what it means. It means hey, the seed, the line, the descendants will. Who's really the descendant of Abraham? Who's really the offspring of Abraham, that that promises. Is it everybody who's born as a Jew? Are they all children of God? Or is it notice how he says it in verse 8, “the children of the promise.” So, he's going to draw a distinction here that not all Israel is Israel. And it's not because God's not true to his word? It's because the Jews aren't always true to being Jews. And so, then he's going to start to explain that, and he's going to use different passages of Scripture. So, one thing we're going to see as we go through Romans 9, and I really hope you'll come back next week, as we continue this study on the doctrine of election through Romans 9 is you're going to see that after he says, “The Word of God has not failed,” he's going to start quoting many scriptures to make his point. And the first scripture that he quotes is right here in verse 7, you can see the quotes around “through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” Now, that's not a very familiar scripture to us. So,at's Genesis 21:12. So grab your Bible with me and let's go look up this quote in its original context here in Genesis 21:12, because he's trying to correct the thought that would have been prevalent there among some of the Jews, that because I'm a Jew, therefore, I'm one of the children of God. And he's saying, that's not how this works. In fact, that's not how this has worked from the beginning. Let's go back to father Abraham. And let's go back to it was through Isaac, that the offspring the seed, the line of promise came, well was Isaac, Abraham's only son. Look at what it says here in Genesis 12:21, “but God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman, whatever Sara says to you do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named? Who is the boy we're talking about here? Does anybody know his name? Ishmael. Maybe you know the story in Genesis, where Sara actually came to Abraham and said, hey, we're not having a son. Why don't you go and be with my maidservant Hager. And maybe you can have a son through her and then guess what Ishmael was born. Was Isaac even the only son of father Abraham? Well, no, there's Ishmael as well. But Ishmael is not in the line of the promise, Ishmael is not in the line of the blessing, Ishmael has not ended up being counted as the offspring through Isaac, your offspring shall be named. And so even going back to the beginning of the seed of Abraham, there was seed of Abraham physically, that wasn't in the line of the promise, and the offspring. And so, just because you're a descendant of Abraham, does not mean you're included in the blessing. So, this is so important, I don't know what you've studied about the doctrine of election, or the idea of God choosing people. What you've heard about, a lot of people think it's very controversial, where the original context of Romans 9 of talking about this is God has chosen the Jewish people. And now the Jewish people are thinking, well, we're all chosen, and Paul is going to prove to them just because he chose the Jewish people does not mean you're one of the chosen people, unless you believe in the promise, you're not a chosen person, just because you're up the seed of Abraham. That's the original context of studying the doctrine of election. And we all need to understand that.
And next week, we're going to get into the doctrine of election where it says, Jacob, I have loved and Esau I have hated where there could be two twins, two twin brothers, and one of them is the line of the offspring, and one of them is not, which is another evidence that just because you're of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does not mean you're one of God's elect people. That's the original context. So, I know some people are like Romans 9, oh, that's so controversial. We'll come back next week. And we'll study it as it's actually said in the Scripture. It's going to be a great service. Next week, we got the kids choir, and then we got the doctrine of election, I can't think of more scintillating service than cute children. And controversial doctrine should be a great day for doughnuts and coffee, everybody. So come on back. And next week, pray for me this week, and then come and join us next week as we talk about this idea. But this idea, you’ve got to get into the context of it. And the context is you’ve got Jewish people walking around thinking, well, because I'm a Jew, therefore, I'm good to go. I'm right with God. I'm one of the chosen ones. And now you’ve got Paul clarify, no, not all Israel is Israel. Remember how there was Ishmael and Isaac, remember how there's Jacob and Esau, just because you're born in the line doesn't mean you're one of God's people, you have to be a child, not just of the seed, you have to be a child of the promise, that children have the promise. They're the real offspring. That's the point that he's making here. And I just want to say that we have here among us, some brothers and sisters who are Jews, and they have believed in the promise of the Messiah. There are Jews among us here at our church, who are really Jews, Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they are children of the promise. But the good news that Paul went all over the world preaching is that it doesn't matter if you are a Jew, or if you're from this other nation, or this other race, or this other ethnicity. Everybody who comes and believes in the promise of the Messiah, they will all be brought in as children, as the offspring, because you're really a child of Abraham, not just if you're in his physical line, but if you follow in the line of his faith, in the promise of God. It is faith that makes us the real children of Abraham.
So, that's the message that he wants to give. And he's correcting the Jews who are thinking, well, I'm a Jew, therefore, I'm good to go now. I've been going to church since day one. I mean, literally from birth. My parents were taking me to church and my family when we grew up. We didn't just go to church. We went to church after church, if you know what I mean, right? We went to church. Every time there was church, we were trying to find ways to go to church when the church wasn't even open. We were finding ways to go to church. So, I mean, I've been here through day one, and I have seen many people who think that I'm a Christian because I've been around Christians. I'm a Christian because I was born a Christian, raised a Christian. I grew up to Christian. I went to Christian kindergarten. By the way, did you go to Christian kindergarten? Because I did. My parents paid money and they told me I was a good kid at that kindergarten. So, before we start thinking, yeah, why would the Jews think they're saved just because they're Jews? How many people have I talked to who think they're saved? I've literally heard people say, well, I was born a Christian. Okay, let's just make it very clear right here, right now, nobody in this room was born a Christian; everybody in this room was born into sin. And that's why Jesus made it clear. If you want to be saved, you have to be born again. Because the way you were born, the first time was the problem. And the way you were born in Christ, that was the solution, see? And so, nobody has a testimony of being born a Christian, but people say things like that at this church on a regular basis. You ask, when did you come to faith? When did you believe the promise? When did you come to see Jesus as the Messiah? And you get answers like, Well, I started going to church back in 2012. But that's not the question that I asked. I didn't ask when did you start going to church as when did you come to believe in Jesus, but for some people, they're the same story. Like, it's not like I came to believe in Jesus, I just started going to church. And for some people, they really think that they're saved because their parents are believers. And so therefore, I grew up in it. And we got to just make this very clear, there is no salvation by association.
That's the point he's making here to the Jewish people. Just because you're a Jew, doesn't mean you're one of God's people. Just because you grew up in a Christian environment does not mean that you are a Christian yourself. You have to put your faith in the promise of the Messiah. Go back to Romans chapter 9 with me, and let's pay careful attention to the language that Paul uses here in Romans 9:8, after he proves what he's saying, with the example of Ishmael and Isaac, that not everybody from the seed of Abraham was really in the line of the promise of the offspring. Well, then he clarifies his statement here in verse 8. It's not the children of the flesh, who are the children of God, but the children of the promise. And then he uses a very key word here in the book of Romans, the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Now, we've been going through Romans for a long time, so you might have forgotten but when we went through Romans, chapter 4, we saw this word counted this Greek word, the good xuemei, we saw this word over and over again, that Abraham was the father of faith. And he was counted as righteous, not based on any works, not based on who he was. But he was counted as righteous on the basis of his faith. So that's what it's talking about here, children of the promise, you put your faith in the promise of the Messiah, in the coming of the Savior. And when you put your faith in the promise, that's when you are counted as one of the offspring of Abraham. Go back to Romans 4. And let's just be reminded that when Paul uses that word, counted, and that word promise, he already made a big case about this in Romans, chapter 4, already used Abraham as the father of faith, as the example for all of us to have faith in. Romans 4:3, he said, “For what does the Scripture say?” And he quotes Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” So, this is where Abraham is the father of faith, not because you're born in his physical line, but because you believe in the promise and you get counted as righteous following the example of father Abraham, look what it says down in Romans 4:16, when it talks about this whole idea of being counted as one of God's people. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on Grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherence of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, “I have made you the father of” what does it say there everybody? “Many nations,” not just one nation of Israel, but the father of many nations. So yeah, if you're a Jew here, we would encourage you to put your faith in the promise of the Messiah. But if you're a Gentile from any nation, tribe, or tongue guy got good news that you can also be one of the offspring of Abraham as you follow his example. And you believe the promise, when you trust not in where you came from, or what you've done, but you trust in who Jesus is and where he came from and what he's done. When you transfer your trust to Jesus, you become a child of the promise, you become the offspring of a Abraham. This is good news for all people. This offer, this offer of all that God wants to give to his people is available to all people. And so, the question comes to you, when did you put your own faith in the promise of the Messiah?
Let's get that down for number two. I want everybody to “evaluate your own faith in God's promised Messiah,” evaluate your own faith, in God's promise, there is a promise that the Messiah, the Anointed One is coming to save us. This is the promise of Christmas, the promise given to Abraham to David to marry, the promise that comes down to us there has been born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. it's good news of great joy for all people. When were your eyes opened to see that Jesus needed to be your Savior, and you trusted in Jesus, no one else can do this for you. Okay, God has many children. And we're not talking about grandchildren, you can't believe because your parents believed. Okay, I just got to be very clear about this, you can't believe because your spouse that you come to church with believes because in some marriages, there's a spouse who is gung ho on fire in their faith, and they read the Bible and they pray. And then there could be a spouse who kind of just it's easy to go to church, and it's easy to talk about spiritual things, because you're just kind of going along with your spouse, not necessarily speaking out of your own faith, you're just going along with their faith. Well, God has made you one here on Earth. But when you stand before God, on that day, you will not be holding hands. No one will be walking through the pearly gates holding the hands of their family of their spouse, we will all stand before Jesus on our own. And when did you put your faith in Jesus? See, there is this idea that we have to talk about that some of us even raised our kids to be Christians, and we want our kids to be Christians, because that's how we raise them. Look, nobody gets saved, because of how we raise them, Can I get an amen from anybody? God saves them out of their sin, and they put their own faith in Jesus, they don't put our faith in Jesus. Every person in this room, you need to have your own belief in the promise of Jesus so that you can be one of these counted as one of these children of God.
And so, I'm not going to apologize for asking you to examine your faith. I'm not going to hey, don't tell me you were born in it. Don't tell me you went to church. Don't tell me you read the Bible. Don't tell me you did a bunch of good things to serve? No, I'm asking you. When did you realize that there was nothing you could possibly do to save yourself? And that the only hope you had? Was Jesus, and you trusted in him? When did you do that? That's what I'm asking you to evaluate. Do you have a story of saying I heard the promise, and I believed, see, not just that you got raised in it. I mean, as Christians these days, we have our whole subculture, we have our own music, our own books, our own movies, we have our own Christian jokes, and memes that aren't really that funny. But I laugh at them every single time, you know what I mean? We have a whole identity that you can say, hey, I'm a Christian because it's all around me. It's in my family. It's at my church. But it's got to be you putting your faith in Christ. And have you done that? And are you confident in that? Because you will meet the Lord Jesus. And it will be between you and him. Nobody else.
Go with me to Galatians chapter 3, see this idea of people thinking they were saved, because they were Jews was a big issue that Paul had to address in his day. And we have the same problem and people thinking they're Christians just because they're born into it, raised into it. And so, he addresses it in Galatians chapter 3, he talks about this same idea. When he says in Galatians 3:26, go with me here, when he says, “For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.” So, when you're in Christ, when you put your faith in Christ, we all become the offspring. We're all counted as sons and daughters, we’re all adopted into God's people, because we're in the Messiah, in Christ Jesus. Look at Galatians 3:27. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are in Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. heirs according to promise. This way, if you're a Jew, praise God, that you're a real Jew who believes in Jesus. But if you're a Gentile, like me, well praise God, we get to be in God's family, and we're all heirs. We're all offspring of Abraham, because of our faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is the key, not how you were raised, not how you were born, not how you grew up. But do you believe in the promise? Now, look at verse 27, because this is how it gets twisted, from when Paul said it to when we read it today. Notice how he says here “for as many of you as were baptized into Christ.” So, the Greek word baptidzo means to place into or to immerse, and it's a word that doesn't get translated, it just gets transliterated, they just take the Greek word, and they put it into English letters. So, a lot of people this is talking about, Hey, when did you get placed into Jesus? When did you experience union with Christ, where you die to your old life of sin, just like Jesus died for you, and you rose to a new life, just like Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, like when did the Holy Spirit put you into Christ? So, you are a new creation, the old you is God and behold, the new you has come. That's what this verse is saying. But you know what people today think? Well, I'm a Christian because I got baptized, and they don't mean I got placed into Christ. They mean, I got dunked in water one day, or maybe I got sprinkled when I was a baby, or maybe when I was a kid, they don't mean water. One time when I was feeling it at that church, I went and got dunked in water. And there are people that I have met at this church that think, well, I know I'm a Christian, I got baptized. See, that would be another example of pointing to something from where you came from something that you have done, rather than believing in the promise of Christ. You are saved because you were placed into Christ, not because anybody or any church placed you into water. See, people can think I mean, talk about being surrounded by I got immersed into water, I must be saved, right? I mean, I've heard people that come to this church have implied to me that the reason they know they're saved, is I got baptized. No, no, no. It's not about getting baptized in water. It's about getting placed into Christ. Do you know that has happened with you go over to Ephesians chapter three. Look at how he says it here. One last passage, just to show you that this was something that was always on Paul's mind. This was what Paul got saved out of himself. Paul thought he was right with God because he was a Jew at one point, right? And so, he had this idea of salvation by association and God, when he met Jesus on the road, God saved Paul out of that.
And he was always bringing this up. Look what he says in Ephesians 3:1, “For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you, Gentiles.” Here's a Jewish man who has now been sent by Jesus to tell all the Gentiles that they can be saved, and the Jews are against him saying that, so that's why he's in prison. And he's saying, I'm in prison because I want to let everybody know that you could be one of the children, you could be one of the offspring, you could be counted as the children of promise if you believe in the Messiah. And so, look what he says in Ephesians 3:6, “this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs.” This is something maybe you wouldn't have known in the Law of Moses or some of the prophets. But let me tell you, the Gentiles are heirs along with the Jews, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. And what good news for us to hear what good news for us to get ready to celebrate? You know, Christmas is really all about the promise of his coming. And being fulfilled all the prophecies being unveiled, that's really what Christmas is, that God has been making these covenants to Israel, and he's been making these promises to Abraham and to David, and he's been saying a king is coming, a priest is coming, a prophet is coming, hey, the Anointed One is coming. The people have been some of them have been believing some of them have been not believing. But then the angel shows up and says to Mary, hey, guess what, Mary, you're going to have a son and your baby. He's going to be the one who sits on the throne of David, the one who reigns on the house of Israel, your baby is the one that's the fulfillment of the promise, your baby is the Messiah, Son of the Most High. See, if you really believe if you're like, well, let me evaluate myself. I believe in Jesus. Well, then let me tell you, it came on my friend because Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year to celebrate the promise of the coming Messiah. And so what I mean if you're ready to say, well, I put my faith in Jesus. Well, then what is Christmas going to mean to you? Like are you going to to sing Christmas songs? We are starting from this week for where we're going to start singing Christmas songs. Are you going to are you going to tear up at some of the Christmas songs thinking about your Messiah coming for you? Are you going to burst with joy just thinking about how there has been born a savior like the promises are true. Jesus came to save me and I believe in the Messiah and I'm a part of God's family. This is real like, are you ready to celebrate? It's like this whole debate goes on like, should I say happy holidays? Or should I say Merry Christmas like saying Merry Christmas is like an edgy thing to say.
They don't need to be greeted “Merry Christmas”; they need to hear about the whole Christ. They need to hear that there is only one name given under men among have that anybody can be saved by. It doesn't matter who you are, or where you came from. We've got one Anointed One who came to save us. And his name is the Christ. He's the Messiah. His name is Jesus. And I love him. And I believe in him. And I don't care. Who knows that. I know. Jesus. See? Is that how you're ready to celebrate Christmas? Are you going to be tiptoeing around Jesus all Christmas? Are you going to be like, well, I'll put it in a card. How about you say it to somebody's face this Christmas? That would be believing in his coming. See, we’ve got these little, these little cards, you can pick up on the way out, these little red cards, I brought one up here. But in all the excitement, I can't find it right now. Here it is. Christmas invitation, right? You could take this on your way out there on the tables on the way out, you can take this and you can start praying right now. Put it in your car, put it somewhere, you're going to see it, hey, I believe in the Messiah who came to save me, what am I going to do to celebrate the promise of his coming this year, I'm going to do something to celebrate Jesus, I'm going to tell somebody, I'm going to cry some real tears, I'm going to shout for joy, I'm going to get up on a high mountain, get up on a rooftop, and I'm going to let everybody know that it doesn't matter who you are, there's a promise, it's true. And if you believe this promise, you could be a child of God. You could be saved from all of your sins, and you could enjoy the inheritance of God's people forever because of the Messiah. And he came to save us. Let's get ready to celebrate Christmas, not because we're Christians, but because we believe in Christ. And we've put our faith in him. And so, it's game on time for us here at the church to get ready for Christmas. Let me pray for us.
Father, I just thank you so much, that we could open up your word together at this service, and we could get the right thought about Israel. And then we could see how the problem that the Jews had is a problem that happens right here in our church where people think that they're Christians, because they're associated with Christians, just like maybe some of the Jews thought they were Jews, because that's how they were born. That's how they were raised. That's the tradition they were brought up. And so, Father, we pray that you would give our church a real value for Israel, and that we would hold your people in high regard that we would consider the covenants of the everlasting possession of land, or the promise of a king that will reign on a throne forever. And we will know that your word has not failed, that you are going to keep your promises to your people of Israel. But then God, I pray that we would evaluate ourselves like, are we caught up in this same thing where we think we're Christians, because we go to church, we think we're Christians. Because we read the Bible, we think we're Christians, because we do good things for other people, when there's only one way than anybody here has become a Christian. And that's because you placed us into Christ. And we saw that he was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the stump of Jesse, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Passover Lamb, who takes away the sins of the whole world. It's only because you opened our eyes so that we could see Jesus came for us on Christmas. That's why we're saved. That's why we're one of your people. It's all because of Jesus. So, Father, I pray that there would be a real evaluation that would happen in this room right now. And I know that there are people in this room that they know in their heart as they hear this message today, that they have not put their faith in the promise. They have not yet stopped trying to do it themselves and really transferred their trust to Jesus, they’ve still got something else they're living for in this life rather than giving their whole heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that today you would open their eyes to see nothing else is going to save them. But there is a Messiah who came, there is a promise that is true. And I pray that today, Father, you would save in this service, that people would say, I’ve got to stop thinking I'm okay, just because I know Christians. And I’ve got to think that I'm saved because I know Jesus. And so, I pray that you will save people and I pray for all of those of us that are children of the promise that are the offspring of Abraham, because we put our faith in Jesus, I pray that we would get ready to have a Christmas celebration this year like we've never had before. That we would think about how all the promises, all the covenants built up to this to an end. She'll tell any young lady. Yeah, you know that one about the house of Jacob, you know that one about the throne of David, your son will fulfill them all. And I pray that we would be ready to sing for joy, that we would be ready to cry tears that we would be ready to shout it from the rooftops that there has been born this savior. And yeah, he came from the Jews, but he'll save anybody. He is Jesus. He's the Christ, the Messiah. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. And I don't care who knows that I know Jesus, because the only thing that's going to matter when I die is that I do know Jesus. That's the only association that saves my soul. So, Father, make us that church, make us these people, your people, the children of the promise, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.